Toronto Raptors would rather forget most of the season’s first half

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Looking back on the first half is a painful experience for the Toronto Raptors.

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The injuries were one thing, but an entire 41-game half-season in which the team failed to establish any kind of identity is truly damning.

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The good news is all of that is history.

As for looking back and re-living it? Well, Fred VanVleet (as usual) probably said it best on that topic.

“What’s behind us is behind us,” VanVleet said about the third time he was asked about the first half tire fire following Tuesday’s win over Charlotte. “We got to look to the future and hopefully our best basketball is in front of us, put something together and nobody will remember what the first half of the season looked like. So, we got work to do, we got a lot of work to do, and we haven’t been great so far, but I like what we’ve been able to put together over the last couple games.”

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And, if anyone doubts that a first half as up and down as the Raptors just went through can be forgotten, they only have to go back to last season.

As bad as these first 41 games have felt, the record is just three games worse than it was at this point a year ago.

No one remembers that though after the Raptors went 27-14 to lock in a playoff berth.

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Currently the team sits 23rd overall in the standings, but are 14th in defensive rating (112.7 points allowed per 100 possessions) and 15th in offensive rating (113.0 points scored per 100 possessions) for a positive net rating and rank 14th overall in that category league-wide.

They’ve actually outperformed their record.

That’s the glass-half-full version.

The glass-half-empty version is the Raptors, while they’ve won their past two, really haven’t given any great indication that a major turnaround like last year is around the corner.

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The bench appears to have found some juice again with Precious Achiuwa healthy again and on his way back to full form. Chris Boucher, who has had his struggles, always seems to play better with Achiuwa in the lineup and his play of late has also been on the rise.

But in an era where the three-point shot is king, the Raptors aren’t even in the same area code as most of the rest of the league when it comes to knocking them down.

At the halfway point, the Raptors as a club are shooting just 33% from deep with only the Charlotte Hornets having more trouble from that range.

The answer is to ensure you have more kicks at the can than the opponent and, for the most part, the Raptors manage to do this on a regular basis with their above-average number of takeaways.

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Unfortunately, the Raptors aren’t just a poor three-point shooting team, they’re a poor shooting team overall so far this season.

Their field goal percentage sits at 44.8%, which again is next to last in the NBA with only Houston having a tougher time getting the ball in the basket.

If you accept the starting five along with Precious Achiuwa and Chris Boucher as the core seven of this team (Christian Koloko is either there or on his way to joining that group), only Gary Trent Jr., OG Anunoby and Boucher have better or equal field goal percentages than they did a year ago.

From behind the arc only, Anunoby is the lone player from that list of seven who has improved, going from a 36.3% shooter to 36.8%.

Everyone else has regressed, led by VanVleet going from a 37.7% three-point chucker to 32.8%. Achiuwa’s numbers from three have cratered, but he also missed 24 of the first 41 games.

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The bottom line is this team just needs to shoot the ball better.

Even marginal improvements in those areas can go a long way, but to go as far as the Raptors need them to if they hope to come close to the kind of second half they had a year ago, this team HAS to get back to its defensive identity.

Head coach Nick Nurse has made the point that defence, particularly transition defence, has become much harder this year because teams are no longer taking the ball out of the basket and inbounding as often as they were. Now, they’re just grabbing a rebound and going and the Raptors have paid the price.

The Raptors’ collective drop off in terms of marksmanship has meant teams are coming at them quicker, giving them less time to get set and they’re taking advantage.

So maybe a better shooting half will, by itself, solve issues on both sides of the ball.

Historically, though, this team is at its best when it is being stingy and physical at the defensive end. On too few have they been either this season.

That will have to change, too, if the next 41 are going to be demonstrably better than the first.